The law, however, permits corporations to support “nonpartisan activity,” so long as that activity is “designed to encourage individuals to vote or to register to vote.”
The FEC has interpreted this law to permits corporate sponsorship of presidential candidate debates—because, in the FEC’s view, these debates are “nonpartisan.”
But that is just nonsense. The Commission for Presidential Debates (“CPD”) may well be “bipartisan,” but it is plainly a partisan commission, keen to exclude anyone who doesn’t tow one of just two party lines.